Friday, February 12, 2010

Two Kinds of Texas Winter

These photos are from Christmas, which we spent with family in West Texas. It was beautiful in its own rugged, spare way.

And this is what we came home to, in Central Texas. It was cold. In the forties and fifties. But we still had not had our first really hard freeze. We've had several hard freezes since then and the grass has gone brown. In fact, we've had some record freezes and lost plants and trees that had been surviving our winters for a some five years or more with no problems. It's just part of the cyclical nature of our weather here. This summer I'll chance it again, probably, and plant some marginal things -- subtropicals that will grow for five or ten years, or longer if I baby them, and if luck and nature don't take me by surprise.

7 comments:

It's funny how little I know about different places in the U.S. I did not realize that it got that cold in Texas. Snow covered cactus just seems a bit weird to me.:)

Too bad about your plants and trees, we planted an apricot tree a couple years ago that just started producing and a couple of Asian pears last year. So of course this is the year that we got no snow at all and the ground froze extra deep. I hope ours pull through but would not be surprised if they froze out...so, like you, we will replant and cross our fingers if they did not survive.

We've gotten weird weather here this year, too. I've had some time to look at your blog here and it's wonderful! Thanks for including me on your blogroll and stopping in at my blog to leave your insightful comments...and hospitality offers to my wonderful Australian Shepherd, heh :) I saw mention on your blog that you're writing a novel and also give writing workshops...very interesting! I'm wanting to begin a novel, but have such a hard time plotting it in advance. Wish I could be closer to the workshops!